British society for haematology slide session, annual scientific meeting, Harrogate, 2001.

The 2001 British Society of Haematology (BSH) Annual Scientific Meeting took place at the Harrogate International Centre with great success. Now an established feature of this annual conference, the BSH slide session took place on the afternoon of the third day. The session aims to demonstrate the enduring importance of morphology as a pivotal skill in diagnostic haematology and to promote a sense of community between diagnostic haematology laboratories in Britain and abroad. Before the conference, slides are distributed to those who intend to be present at the meeting and who request them. These slides are examined in many haematology departments as an educational exercise. The session organizer invites two ‘experts’ to discuss the morphological features of six blood or marrow films, each accompanied by a short clinicopathological vignette, and to come to a diagnostic conclusion. Attendees at the session are given the opportunity to express their views, before the case contributor is asked to present further investigations and the final diagnosis, if one was reached. In previous years, the two experts were consultant haematologists, but on this occasion one consultant and one specialist registrar were invited, in order to let a trainee rise to the challenge and to encourage participation by other trainees, who stand to benefit greatly from the session. The cases are described below, along with the clinicopathological vignettes; relevant photographs and the discussants’ opinions are presented first so that readers can make their own diagnoses. The diagnoses of the case contributors follow.